District 3 incumbent Kshama Sawant speaks during a candidate forum hosted by the King County Young Democrats, Sunday, April 28, 2019 . A political arm of Metropolitan Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hiring door-to-door canvassers as "independent" expenditure to boost her opponent. less

District 3 incumbent Kshama Sawant speaks during a candidate forum hosted by the King County Young Democrats, Sunday, April 28, 2019 . A political arm of Metropolitan Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hiring ... more

Photo: Genna Martin, SEATTLEPI

Photo: Genna Martin, SEATTLEPI

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District 3 incumbent Kshama Sawant speaks during a candidate forum hosted by the King County Young Democrats, Sunday, April 28, 2019 . A political arm of Metropolitan Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hiring door-to-door canvassers as "independent" expenditure to boost her opponent. less

District 3 incumbent Kshama Sawant speaks during a candidate forum hosted by the King County Young Democrats, Sunday, April 28, 2019 . A political arm of Metropolitan Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hiring ... more

A campaign that reaches your doorstep used to be a surefire way to measure volunteer enthusiasm for candidates running in elections.

No more. Special interest money is turning it into a paying gig in Seattle's 2019 City Council races.

A group sponsored by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce last week inked a $97,500 contract with a Ventura, California firm to field door-to-door canvassers in three Seattle City Council races.

It will pay Zero Week Solutions $48,160 to hit 7,799 doors for ex-Council member Heidi Wills in District 6 (Northwest Seattle). The contract is $27,980 for 4,954 doors for Egan Orion, who is challenging incumbent Kshama Sawant in District 3 (Central Seattle, Madison Park, Capitol Hill).

"After years of knocking on doors, I can tell you even an average canvasser will hit between 20 and 30 doors an hour (especially in dense Seattle). That's, on the low side, $119 an hour," messaged Stephen Paolini, who recently volunteered with King County Young Democrats to canvass for Dan Strauss, Wills' opponent. "I canvassed 150 doors last week, and I could have made $900."

Of course, candidates themselves are knocking on doors by the thousands, especially now that Seattle elects 7 of 9 Council members by district. All seven district seats are up this year, meaning the appeals is to 90,000 citizens rather than a city-wide population (as of August) of 659,000.

Public spending via "democracy vouchers," plus district elections, were supposed to curb the influence of big money in urban election campaigns. The 2017 Seattle Mayor's race blew away any notion of restraints. As then-candidate Jenny Durkan's war chest reached $937,000 on election eve, an "independent" group called People for Jenny Durkan reported spending $804,000.

This year, three groups seeking to "flip" the Seattle City Council -- CASE, People for Seattle and Moms for Seattle -- have gone over the $2 million mark. Unite Here has mounted a six-figure campaign for Andrew Lewis.

Amazon, at $450,000, is the biggest donor to CASE, with Vulcan following at $155,000 and the Washington Assn. of Realtors -- big players across the state in Spokan's race for Mayor -- at $120,000. Expedia follows as $50,000.

A rival group called the Citizens Alliance for a Progressive Economy has raised $445,000, with $125,000 from progressive entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, $110,000 from SEIU local 775, and $85,000 from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21. It is boosting progressive District 1 (West Seattle, South Park) incumbent Council member Lisa Herbold, and District 2 (Southeast Seattle) candidate Tammy Morales. It is going through the mails with its message.

The Seattle campaign is proving a testament to an adage of the late California Assembly Speaker Jess ("Big Daddy") Unrun: "Money is the mother's milk of politics."